Europe: the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Question 1

Define:

Middle Ages

Answer 1

The Middle Ages refers to European civilization from the fall of Rome in 476 to the rise of more modern nations beginning in the 1500s.

During the Middle Ages, political power throughout Europe was decentralized, with many small states and little political unity.

Question 2

What is feudalism?

Answer 2

In a feudal system, a ruler provides land (known as a fief) to a vassal. In turn, the vassal provides the ruler military service and loyalty. To farm the land, peasants known as serfs were used.

Question 3

The concept of _____ governed the conduct of the nobility during the Middle Ages.

Answer 3

chivalry

As Christian warriors, noble knights were to follow chivalry’s code of virtuous conduct in religion, battle, social conduct, and romance.

Chivalrous examples, such as King Arthur, Tristan, and Parsifal, provided examples of how knights were to behave.

Question 4

What duty did nobles owe to their sovereign in feudal societies during the Middle Ages?

Answer 4

Although given primary control over their fiefs, nobles owed military service to the ruler who’d given them the fiefs. Nobles provided an army of foot soldiers to their ruler, but they also served in a force of armored cavalry, known as knights.

Question 5

Define:

serfs

Answer 5

In fedual societies, serfs were peasants who farmed noble fiefs. Although not technically slaves, serfs were not free and were bound to the land that they farmed.

Question 6

Although the Middle Ages were dominated by decentralization and small states, one institution bound Central and Western Europe together politically and culturally. What was it?

Answer 6

The Christian faith, directed by the Catholic Church, was one of the few unifying forces in Central and Western Europe. The Church was a powerful political force, and the head of the Catholic Church (the Pope) exercised a great deal of temporal authority over the princes and kings of Europe through his spiritual authority.

Question 7

Who were the Franks?

Answer 7

The Franks were a Germanic tribe that conquered Gaul (modern-day France). In 500, Clovis, the king of the Franks, converted to Christianity.

Question 8

What was the result of the Battle of Tours in 732?

Answer 8

Having already conquered Spain, the Umayyad Muslims began marching into France. At the Battle of Tours, the Franks halted the Muslim advance. Spain became the furthest outreach of Islam and the remainder of Western Europe remained Catholic.

Question 9

Which king proved the most powerful of the Carolingian Dynasty?

Answer 9

The Frankish king Charlemagne, the second king of the Carolingian Empire, was the most powerful. He allied the Empire with the Church and was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor in 800. Charlemagne successfully defended his empire from attacks by the Vikings, Muslims, and various barbarians.

Question 10

From the 800s to the 1100s, the _____ raided and conquered coastal lands throughout Europe.

Answer 10

Vikings

The Vikings contributed to the rise of centralized nations in Europe as local forces coalesced to repel Viking raids. The Vikings ranged as far south as Constantinople and North Africa and even established kingdoms in Sicily.

Question 11

Who were the Normans?

Answer 11

The Normans were the descendants of Vikings who’d settled in northwestern France. In 1066, Normans led by William the Conqueror invaded England and established French-style feudalism.

Question 12

What document, signed by King John in 1215, gave English nobles rights such as a trial by jury and due process under the law?

Answer 12

The Magna Carta extended rights to the English nobles and acted as a check on the power of the King. In the later 1200s, English nobles gained the right to form a Parliament, which would pass laws to govern England.

Question 13

How did the European monarchs respond to a request for help by the Byzantine Empire in 1095?

Answer 13

In 1095, claiming the Seljuk Turks were desecrating the Holy Land, the Byzantine Empire requested assistance from Pope Urban II and the European monarchs.

At the Council of Clermont, the Pope organized a military effort (termed a “Crusade”) to retake Jerusalem. By the summer of 1099, Jerusalem had been retaken and its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants slaughtered. In the First Crusade’s wake, four Christian kingdoms were established in the Middle East.

Question 14

The First Crusade had captured Jerusalem. How did later crusades fare?

Answer 14

Most later crusades fared miserably, and some did not even make it as far as the Holy Land. By 1186, Jerusalem had been recaptured, and by 1291 the last of the Christian kingdoms in the Middle East had fallen.

Crusades became a generic term for Papally authorized military actions against non-Catholics, and were not only launched against Muslims - Popes announced crusades against dissenting Christians in Spain, the Baltic region, and in France.

Question 15

What were the results of the Crusades?

Answer 15

The Crusades led to an increased interaction with the Muslim world and a significant worsening of the relationship between the two sides. There was, however, increased trade with Muslim merchants and an increase in European demand for the Asian goods to which Europeans had been exposed during the Crusades.

Question 16

What caused the bubonic plague, which ravaged Europe in the mid-1300s?

Answer 16

Bubonic plague was a bacteria carried into Europe by fleas that lived on black rats. The Black Death, as the plague was called, killed at least a third of Europe’s population.

Question 17

Why did the Black Death spread so rapidly and kill so many Europeans?

Answer 17

European cities were ideal centers for the disease. They were filthy, with poor sanitation. Even the wealthy lived in cramped quarters and hygiene was unknown. Although rural populations suffered as well, the death toll in the cities was catastrophic.

Question 18

What act caused the Hundred Years’ War in 1337?

Answer 18

In addition to being the King of England, Edward III was the Duke of Normandy and, as such, was required to pay homage to Philip VI of France. Edward III refused to do so, and the French king confiscated Edward’s lands in Aquitaine.

Question 19

How did Edward III respond to Philip VI’s confiscation of his lands in Aquitaine?

Answer 19

Edward III declared himself the legal king of France (a claim with some backing in dynastic law) and dispatched an army to France, starting the Hundred Years’ War. Initially, the English were successful with victories at Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415).

The Hundred Years’ War is a term coined by historians to describe the conflict that raged off and on between France and England from 1337 to 1453.

Question 20

In 1429, the French defeated English forces laying siege to the town of Orleans. Who led the French forces?

Answer 20

Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who claimed she spoke with God, led the French. The victory strengthened the French cause and proved the turning point in the Hundred Years’ War.

Question 21

How did Joan of Arc die?

Answer 21

Burgundy, an English ally located in the northeast of modern-day France, captured Joan and turned her over to the English, who burned her at the stake as a witch. After Joan’s death, English fortunes plummeted, and they were steadily driven towards the English channel.

Question 22

Historians date the end of the Hundred Years’ War to 1453, although peace was not formally declared until 20 years later. Who won the war?

Answer 22

Victory in the Hundred Years’ War belonged to the French, who conquered all of the English possessions in modern-day France except for Calais on the French coast.

Some 20 years later, the French defeated Burgundy’s forces at the Battle of Nancy, and France emerged as a strong monarchical state with a centralized government.

Question 23

How did the English kings meet the expense of the Hundred Years’ War?

Answer 23

In England, the King had to ask Parliament for taxes to fund the conflict. Throughout the War, Parliament reserved to itself the power to debate taxes and required the King to continually request funds. Parliament’s taxing power proved a check on any absolutist ambitions harbored by English monarchs.

Question 24

How did the French kings meet the expense of the Hundred Years’ War?

Answer 24

In France, the King convinced France’s legislative assembly, the Estates General, to authorize the King to collect a tax on land (taille) and a tax on salt (the gabelle). The French nobility and clergy supported the taxes because they were exempt from the tax.

The tax revenue ensured that the French Kings were not beholden to the Estates General, and they quickly became absolute monarchs. As Louis XIV expressed it, “I am the State.”

Question 25

Who are generally considered the most powerful political figures in the late Medieval period?

Answer 25

Popes and the Catholic Church dominated Western and Central Europe during the late Medieval period. The Church had vast landholdings, extensive revenues, and significant moral power.

Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, once stood barefoot in the snow for three days until the Pope responded to his request to have his excommunication lifted.

Question 26

Define:

simony

Answer 26

During the late Medieval period, simony took place when individuals paid the Catholic Church to be appointed to holy offices in the Church. The higher the Church office, the higher the purchase price. It proved a significant source of revenue.

In his Divina Commedia, Dante accused simonists of buying and selling the grace of God and placed them in hell, where they were buried headfirst in pits while flames lapped endlessly at their feet.

Question 27

Who was John Wycliffe?

Answer 27

John Wycliffe (1321-1384) was an English advocate for Catholic Church reforms. Contending that the Church should follow Scriptural law, Wycliffe denounced the extravagance of bishops, cardinals, and the Papacy, with whom lavish expenditures of wealth were commonplace.

Wycliffe also translated the Bible into English so that the common people could understand God’s Word.

Question 28

_____ _____, a Bohemian church reformer, was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415.

Answer 28

Jan Hus

Hus is considered as one of the Reformation’s forbearers. He drew inspiration from John Wycliffe’s teachings, and preached against Church corruption. Even after Hus’s death, his followers, the Hussites, dominated Bohemia; three successive Papal crusades failed to defeat them.

Question 29

In the history of the Catholic Church, what event is known as the Babylonian Captivity?

Answer 29

The Babylonian Captivity refers to the removal of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, France in 1305. The next seven Popes would sit in Avignon, where the French King could dominate the Church.

The Babylonian Captivity severely damaged the Church’s prestige, and called into question its independence.

Question 30

How did the Great Schism of 1377 arise?

Answer 30

Pope Gregory IX had returned to Rome in 1377, ending the Babylonian Captivity, but died shortly thereafter. Under pressure by a mob in Rome to name a Roman successor, the College of Cardinals appointed the closest candidate they could find: Pope Urban VI from Naples, who established himself at Rome.

However, after quickly regretting their decision, they chose a second Pope, Clement VII, who established his court at Avignon. The religious crisis soon became a political one as rulers throughout Europe chose to follow one Pope or the other.

Question 31

What was the Conciliar Movement?

Answer 31

The Conciliar Movement was an effort by leading cardinals to resolve the Great Schism. Their first attempt, at the Council of Pisa (1409), led to the creation of a third Pope. However, at the Council of Constance (1414-1418), all three Popes resigned and a new Pope was elected, reunifying the Church.

Further efforts to reform the Church and keep the Papacy inferior to the councils failed in the face of Papal resistance.

Question 32

The Turks captured _____ in 1453, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire.

Answer 32

Constantinople

The fall of Constantinople marked the end of an unbroken chain of government stretching back over 2000 years. Scholars fleeing the Turks headed to Italy and the West, where they would influence Renaissance thinkers and expose them to ancient Greek and Latin literature.

Question 33

Who authored the Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia)?

Answer 33

The Divine Comedy was the work of Dante Alighieri of Rome, and was completed in 1321. In it, Dante described a journey to hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paridiso).

Rather than writing in Latin, Dante adopted the vernacular, writing in the common language of the day (Florentine Italian), an unusual practice at the time. Dante’s work is considered one of the finest ever written, and has been an inspiration to countless authors.

Question 34

_____ _____ _____ is a collection of tales told by religious pilgrims on their journey as part of a story-telling contest.

Answer 34

The Canterbury Tales

Much like Dante, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in the vernacular. In Chaucer’s case the vernacular was that of late-1300s England, leading to the general acceptance of the use of written English.

Chaucer’s rather ribald work (vulgar for its time) even featured some of English literature’s first flatulence-based humor.

Question 35

Who was St. Thomas Aquinas?

Answer 35

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian priest and influential philosopher and theologian. Aquinas’s teaching and writings were the bedrock of late Medieval philosophy, and sought to reconcile faith and reason by using logic to support Christian doctrine. Aquinas’s reliance on logic would be countered by humanists during and after the Renaissance.

His ideas remain influential today; Aquinas’s Summa Theologica is still used in theology and philosophy classes.

Question 36

Define:

Renaissance

Answer 36

Renaissance means rebirth. Beginning in Florence in about 1300 before spreading to Northern Europe, the Renaissance refers to the outgrowth of culture that marked a sharp break from the Medieval period.

Question 37

What was the geopolitical makeup of Italy at the time of the Renaissance?

Answer 37

At the time of the Renaissance, Italy was a hodgepodge of small, independent states, usually centered around a single city, such as Florence, Rome, or Naples. A balance-of-power pattern emerged, as weaker states allied with stronger states to defend themselves against larger states.

That Italy was a collection of more than 15 countries is not odd, as most of the nation states of modern Europe were still fragmentary in 1400.

Question 38

What family ruled the Republic of Florence?

Answer 38

Although a titular republic, Florence was under the domination of the Medici family for decades. Cosimo de’ Medici and his grandson Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de’ Medici were both patrons of the arts.

Question 39

The region of central Italy, directly under the control of the Catholic Church, was known as the _____ _____.

Answer 39

Papal States

The Papal States gave the Pope both temporal and spiritual power. Some Popes were even known to lead troops into the field themselves. For instance, Pope Julius II waged war in northern Italy in the early 1500s.

Question 40

Which city-state was Italy’s strongest naval power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance?

Answer 40

Venice, built on small islands along the coast, was Italy’s strongest naval power, and one of the world’s great naval powers.

Venice was a republic with territory on both sides of the Adriatic Sea and a large trading network. In 1450, Venice’s combined naval strength numbered some 4,500 ships.

Question 41

Alone among the Italian states, the Kingdom of _____ had a king, rather than a prince, duke, marquise, or other ruler.

Answer 41

Naples

The Kingdom of Naples dominated most of southern Italy, but by 1500 would be firmly under Spanish control.

Question 42

Why were the Italian city-states able to fund the Renaissance?

Answer 42

Italy was in a geographically advantageous position, and her cities served as Western markets for Eastern goods and her merchants invented modern banking.

Through contact with the Middle East and Asia, wealthy Italians became aware of Asian and Arabic technology, goods, and ideas. As a consequence, many of the leading Italians earned vast fortunes, which they used to commission art, buildings, and literature.

Question 43

Define:

Renaissance Man

Answer 43

A Renaissance Man was considered the ideal man in Italy during the Renaissance. A true Renaissance Man would study until he could do all things well; painting, singing, gymnastics, horseback riding, hunting, and the like.

Knowledge was also a part of the Renaissance Man’s makeup. A true Renaissance Man knew Latin and Greek, and had read the classic Greco-Roman works.

Question 44

Define:

humanism

Answer 44

Humanism is a school of thought which places primary importance on the individual, rather than on God.

During the Italian Renaissance, humanists turned away from medieval scholarship and towards the classic Greek and Roman authors, such as Homer, Livy, and Cicero.

Question 45

What was the impact of the fall of Constantinople on the Italian Renaissance?

Answer 45

When Constantinople fell in 1453, many of its leading scholars fled west to the Italian city-states. They brought with them many of the classics of Greco-Roman literature.

More importantly, they possessed a knowledge of Greek, which enabled their students to read the works of ancient Greek authors, such as Homer, for the first time.

Question 46

Which Florentine is considered the father of modern political science?

Answer 46

Niccolò Machiavelli’s (1469-1527) three works, The Prince, The Discourses, and The History of Florence, provided the first modern analysis of political science and the habits of rulers.

Machiavelli was concerned with virtù, the habits he believed made a ruler successful. Virtù did not always relate to virtue, as Machiavelli’s most remembered maxim, “The end justifies the means,” demonstrates.

Question 47

During the Renaissance, architecture blossomed in Italy. From what source did architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) draw their inspiration?

Answer 47

Brunelleschi, Alberti, and other Italian architects drew their inspiration from the Roman ruins that littered Italy. Arches, columns, capitals, and domes came into fashion once again, first in Florence and then throughout Italy.

Question 48

What artistic development in the early Italian Renaissance allowed for the creation of more visually accurate paintings?

Answer 48

Florentine artists grasped the importance of linear perspective, which required making more distant objects smaller. Henceforth, painters would focus not on two-dimensional representations of objects, but on making their art appear three-dimensional.

Question 49

Which artists are considered the Trinity of Italian Renaissance art?

Answer 49

The title of the Trinity is bestowed upon Raphael (1483-1520), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the three best-known artists of the Renaissance.

Raphael’s best-known work is The School of Athens, depicting legendary Greek philosophers.

Michelangelo was a prominent sculptor, painter, architect, and even a poet, whose works conveyed an awe-inspiring grandeur.

A true Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci was an inventor, scientist, and artist, whose famous works include The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.

Question 50

How did the subject matter of Renaissance authors differ from the subject matter of authors of the late Medieval period?

Answer 50

Most late Medieval authors wrote on religious subjects, and even Dante’s Divina Commedia is religious in subject matter, albeit with classical references such as Virgil.

During the Renaissance, for the first time writing became a profession rather than only a clerical pursuit. Writers focused on non-religious topics in addition to religious ones.

Question 51

_____ is considered the founding father of humanism, as well as the first modern writer.

Answer 51

Petrarch

Petrarch deliberately looked back to the Greco-Roman period with his Letters to the Ancient Dead, and was heavily influenced by the Roman orator Cicero.

Religion wasn’t completely divorced from Petrarch’s writing; after his famous ascent up Mount Ventoux (which he ascended merely for the pleasure of the view), Petrarch read from his copy of St. Augustine.

Question 52

What author composed The Decameron, 100 stories detailing the comic sexual and economic improprieties of the clergy and nobles as well as other lighthearted stories?

Answer 52

A student of Petrarch, Boccaccio (1313-1375) composed The Decameron, a distinctly humorous and humanist book that took for its subject matter the secular world of 14th-century Italy. Like Dante before him, Boccaccio wrote in the vernacular.

Question 53

What term is given to the efforts of Italian thinkers in the late Renaissance to meld religious scholarship with their rediscovery of Greek philosophers such as Plato?

Answer 53

After the fall of Constantinople, Italian thinkers attempted to create a synthesis between the writings of the ancient Greeks and the ideas of Christianity, a movement known as Neo-Platonism.

To further the movement, Cosimo de’ Medici provided the funds to set up the Florentine Academy, a deliberate imitation of the Athenian Academy of classical Greece.

Question 54

What author’s Book of the Courtier, published in 1528, was a guidebook on how to be a Renaissance Man?

Answer 54

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) published The Book of the Courtier, which specified the qualities necessary to be a true Renaissance Man. Castiglione described the magnificence of the court in the small Duchy of Urbino and emphasized its members’ intellectual and physical activities.

Of special importance was virtù, the quality of being excellent in a plethora of worthwhile pursuits.

Question 55

What events contributed to the Renaissance’s outgrowth from Italy to the countries of Western Europe?

Answer 55

The most important event was the invention of the printing press, which made it easier and cheaper to publish books. Printers began publishing the works of Renaissance writers throughout Western Europe in an effort to satisfy insatiable demand.

Other events included the French and Spanish invasions of Italy beginning in the 1490s, which contributed to an exposure and exchange of information between Italy and the West.

Question 56

How did humanism in the Northern Renaissance differ from Italian humanism?

Answer 56

While Italian humanism looked to classical Greco-Roman texts for inspiration, the Northern Renaissance was influenced by the writings of Church Fathers, such as St. Augustine. Historians call this reconciled version “Christian Humanism.”

Question 57

_____ was a Dutch Renaissance humanist who wrote In Praise of Folly, which criticized the hypocrisy and immorality of the Catholic Church.

Answer 57

Erasmus (1466-1536)

In Praise of Folly was a best-seller of the 1500s. As a master of Greek literature, Erasmus published a translation of the New Testament and sought to reform the Catholic Church from inside.

During the Reformation, contemporaries said that Erasmus “laid the egg that Luther hatched.”

Question 58

What English author composed Utopia, a blueprint for a perfect society brought about by mixing civic humanism with religious ideas?

Answer 58

A chief writer in the English Renaissance, Sir Thomas More composed Utopia in 1516. More was also a prominent advocate for Church reform and opposed any break with the Catholic Church.

His opposition to the Reformation brought about his death by beheading when England broke with the Catholic Church.

Question 59

Who is considered the finest playwright of the English Renaissance?

Answer 59

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s works were prolific and drew inspiration from ancient mythology and modern history. While Shakespeare was not the first popular English Renaissance playwright (Christopher Marlowe being one predecessor), he is the most famous.

Question 60

What English Renaissance scientist is credited with the creation of the scientific method?

Answer 60

Francis Bacon developed the scientific method, an empirical technique using inductive methodology for scientific inquiry. In addition to being a scientist, Bacon was a legal reformer, philosopher, and novelist.

Later scientists, such as Isaac Newton, would draw on Bacon’s techniques in their own scientific pursuits.